NICE Guidelines: The use of routine preoperative tests for elective surgery

• NICE Guidelines: The use of routine preoperative tests for elective surgery

The NICE(National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) clinical guideline on preoperative tests covers tests that are often carried out when someone is due to have a planned (elective) surgical operation and that are carried out before the operation by doctors or nurses in hospitals, preoperative assessment clinics or, in some cases, in the GP’s surgery or health centres.

The NICE guideline makes recommendations on the circumstances in which the tests should be done, not done, or considered – for example, whether a certain test is recommended may depend on the patient’s age or how serious the planned operation is.